Love Will Have Its Sacrifices
by emmahasanidea
Summary: Sequel to 'Last Call'. Beth discovers a life after death. A second chance for a do over in this half way point between the living and the dead.
1. Chapter 1

Beth hasn't really thought of life after death, she was a detective not a philosopher. She didn't really feel much at the time, she still doesn't now, not in that sense. All the thoughts she had before are still with her. Some are starting to fade away with the relief that she's no longer in the real world. Only now she has a question, where is she? She's not at the station anymore, but neither is she anywhere all those books talked about back in high school.

She's detached from the world, yet she still seems so close. "Beth." Somebody calls but she's so taken in this new place she can barely hear it. Her mind drifts around the place that is empty of whiteness and judgement. She recognises this place. No. _No. _She can't be here. Why would they've sent her _here_?

Those suburban white French doors. It was the only way she ever entered the house. The only way Alison ever let her enter the house. Does her heart still beat? She's sure it's just quickened with that thought. She feels someone grip her shoulder and she shoots around, alarmed by the touch. She's _dead_, she shouldn't be able to physically feel anymore. Isn't that the whole point of being dead? "Don't shoot officer." The woman smirks with both of her hands up in a surrender.  
>"Where am I?"<br>"I thought that would be obvious to you." She nods towards the house. If Beth wasn't dead herself she wouldn't have known the woman in front of her is. Her dark brown skin is still full of colour, her black hair still tightly pinned back in a braid, her clothes immaculate.  
>"I know that." Beth shoots back, but the woman seems unfazed.<br>"I'm Steph." She holds out her hand and Beth reluctantly takes it in a loose shake. Her hand is warm. Beth pulls back with the sensation. "Not as different as you think is it?"  
>"How different is it suppose to be?"<br>Steph shrugs and begins to walk away. "Hey!" Beth catches her arm and for a split second she sees something that looks like fear in the other woman's eyes. She loosens her grip slightly and that look disappears as quickly as it came. "I need to know how to get out of here."  
>"I can't help you with that." She pulls her arms away and disappears in front of Beth. She blinks, staring at the space Steph was. This definitely <em>not<em> how she imagined death.

Steph knew how to get out here, Beth could see that-all those years of detective work really paid off. Suddenly she finds herself face to face with the darker girl. This is somewhere else. Somewhere so far from Alison's. Somewhere she doesn't know. It's a park, people are going about their day to day lives ruling out the possibility that they aren't invisible. "You're persistent." The confident smirk is back on her face.  
>"How did I get here?" Beth asks scanning around the area.<br>"Your mind is a powerful thing Elizabeth Childs."  
>Beth snorts. It's her mind that has partially driven her to this level of instability. Questioning everything around you. Constantly re-evaluating who you could trust. It was all mentally draining. Although she never asked to be a lab rat for some scientists who wanted to trial cloning.<br>"It controls where you go here."  
>"Great. Anymore rules I should know about?"<p>

Steph isn't offended by the taller woman's shortness toward her. She was a detective, she needed answers to her questions. It's probably instinctive to her now. "You can go back once, the longer you stay here, the longer that once will be. If you want to go beyond here there's no coming back. You don't have to leave here if you don't want to. Yes you can interact with others here, but don't call them ghosts. Yes you do still have to do basic human functions and your body works like it did before. Yes we are invisible to live humans. No we can't walk through walls but we can teleport anywhere which is a pretty cool add-on." Steph stops and thinks, giving Beth a moment to take it all in, not that she needs it. "And if you harm another, you get sent to the Dark."

Beth nods solemnly. She's in a form of purgatory, she finally understands. You can stay enjoying a detached life, or simply end it. Beth had achieved her aim of ending one life. One that was so full of pain and hopelessness, she doesn't want to end this one. All of those things can't get to her anymore unless she lets them.

She feels the other woman's eyes studying her. For what she doesn't know. Maybe there's a hierarchy that makes sure you settle into this new life and don't unintentionally destroy this second you've been given. "Beth?"  
>"I've got it." She waves her away, not wanted to be reminded of how it was before. "So where do you go to eat then?"<br>The concern is gone and replaced with a small smile that seems to light up her face. "I thought you'd never asked."  
>Beth smiles as Steph disappears in front of her. It's been a long time since she remembered doing that. She never thought she deserved a second chance, but here it is. Laid out in front of her, wanting her to make use of it. It's as if some wants her to be happy, to enjoy her life being free of experiments. Slowly as Beth feels herself fade away from the park, she feels that she should want to be happy too.<p>

They sit down outside the cafe with coffee and sandwiches. This place is completely detached from the living world. Some people here have jobs and others are left to wander until they want to leave. "This place is your new home." Steph says waving to the giant complex behind them. It looks like a giant shopping centre, but Steph explains it's a giant apartment complex where everyone lives. "Speaking of which, you need to get assigned a room." She says once they've both finished their food.

"Are you my tour guide then?" Beth remarks as they walk to the complex.  
>"Not exactly." She laughs. "Everyone is assigned a new ghost, so that they understand the process."<br>"Is there any way I can change?" Beth smirks. "You're not really my type."  
>Steph rolls her eyes and Beth nudges her shoulder trying to look offended. With the contact she feels the other woman flinch and withdraws quickly.<p>

Beth holds back momentarily and studies her. It's clear that not everything is left back with the living.

* * *

><p>AN Thanks for the read and onto chapter 2 for even more angst!

God I've been meaning to right some type of sequel to Last Call for sometime and it kind of came out like this-which is better than I hoped.

Four for you if you get the title reference too! Carmilla has taken over my life which is probably where all this angst came from.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: TW of domestic abuse (mentioned). Also angst from this point in. Reader discretion is advised.

* * *

><p>"You spend a lot of your time here." Steph says matter-of-factly as she walks over and sits down next to the former detective.<br>"Mmm." Beth muses.  
>"You know her?"<br>"She was my girlfriend." Beth says quietly. She isn't the type give away personal information, especially anything about Alison.  
>Steph offers her a smile. "Sorry. Is she the reason you're here?"<p>

Beth knows she means being dead, not being outside Alison's. The detective shrugs. "She was the only person that could've stopped me, but she wasn't the only reason."  
>"I know what you mean." Steph doesn't quite meet her eyes. "Sometimes it's love that kills you." Beth smiles weakly as her eyes drift back to the house. Up until recently it was the only place she felt safe, but that didn't count for anything unless Alison let her in.<br>"Are you going use your chance to go back to her?"  
>She shakes her head with a faint smile pulling at her lips. "She ended it with me. If I go back to her I might start something I can't finish."<br>"You don't ever have to go back if you don't want."  
>"Have you?" Beth blurts out. "Gone back, I mean."<p>

She nods. "About a month after being here. I went back to see my sister. She's the one that took it the hardest and I needed to tell her it wasn't her fault. It was my fault. I knew our relationship was toxic, but I was so taken by him I just accepted it. When I came here I realised how bad it was, but too little too late I guess." She lets out a long breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. She hesitantly looks in Beth's direction and the cop gives her a small smile. It isn't what Steph was expecting. She's had so many sympathetic smiles when she mentioned her story. Though she's never spoke all of it until Beth. There's something mysterious to her-that's something she's rarely come across here.

"I had something like that." Beth says quietly. "Not the abuse, I did that to myself really. My boyfriend wouldn't leave, not even after he found out about Alison." She stops herself. Can she really just tell a stranger all this? She looks up to find Steph watching her attentively. Mentally she scolds herself; Steph's the only person who's made sure she's OK here, she's the only person she's got here. "He was monitoring me for some programme. Once I found that out my life got out of control. I was drowning and I knew no one could save me anymore."

"And what about now? Is this better or am I going to be fired from my guiding?"  
>"This is good." A firm smile settles across Steph's face with Beth's answer.<br>"Well I'm going to get lunch, want to come?" She asks getting up.  
>"Sure, but I have one thing I want to sort out first."<br>"Whatever you say detective." She chirps and playfully ruffles the other woman's hair before she can do anything about it.

Beth takes a deep breath, a smile on her lips, and closes her eyes taking herself away from her newly found paradise.

The winter air is still as biting here as it was back home, Beth notes as she stands outside her old apartment. The person she wants is inside. She frisks her pockets for her keys as she used too. However the key she has now is for an apartment with much cheaper rent but still a high quality. She raps the door and listens as footsteps trudge over to the door.

The door opens ajar so the two women are facing. The one on the other side isn't that much different from the one she saw at the train station, except she's lost the blonde highlights and a huge amount of eyeliner. "You're-" The woman's words trail off as Beth pushes past her into the apartment. She takes in the mess. Case files all over the floor, bank statements, copies of birth certificates. "You're not another one are you?"  
>"No I'm the dead one, Beth Childs."<br>"Sarah Manning." The English punk offers, evidently she's slowly transiting into Beth's life, but losing the leather jacket would be hard. "You're dead. I...I saw you." Her brow furrows. Even more so with the slight smile on Beth's face.  
>"I am dead. I can't explain it, but you need to know what's going on here."<br>"Clones. I know."  
>"There's so much more to it than that." Beth pulls out a USB flash drive and hands it to Sarah. "That will give you all the answers you need." She pulls out a letter too, but fidgets with it. "This is for Alison." Sarah takes it with an arched eyebrow. "You can't tell any of them you've seen me."<p>

"Do I get to ask any questions or do I just get given instructions?" Sarah remarks. Beth checks her watch, leaning against the kitchen counter and gives her a curt nod.  
>"Why did you choose me?"<br>"Excuse me?" Beth stutters.  
>"You must've known about me."<br>"Yes, but I didn't choose you to take on my life, to dig deeper into who we are." The punk's run out of ideas with her identical's bluntness. "You're relentless Sarah, you're a survivor."  
>"Don't put me on a pedestal Beth. I'm not as strong as you."<br>Beth watches her, her whole temperament is different. This girl is so much stronger than her.  
>"You are Sarah. You're important. You'll do what it takes."<p>

A silence grows between them and Beth feels her time here fading. "Still can't believe I took over the life of a cop." Sarah smirks.  
>"The irony of that." Beth smiles. "They're good people. Art especially. Don't hurt him Sarah, he's one of the good guys."<br>"And the bad guys?"  
>Beth smirks and slowly makes her way to the door. "Take a guess. You've met enough of them."<p>

The click of the door opening almost deafens what Sarah says, "I'm sorry."  
>"Don't be." Beth offers a smile. "You can't fix what was already broken."<p>

Steph looks up from the menu as Beth crashes into the booth opposite her. "You OK?"  
>"Can we order first? I'm not the nicest person on an empty stomach." Steph smirks and strolls up to the counter to order. Beth watches her, seeing a new found strength in her posture. "I can feel you looking Childs." Steph says, shooting her a playful look. She smirks and ducks her head as Steph comes back over. "So what happened?"<p>

Alison finds the letter slipped under the French doors when she comes back from grocery shopping. That handwriting she could spot from anywhere. She bites her lip holding the tears back as she puts the letter into a box in her crafts room. Alison never thought that distraught conversation on the phone to her would be her last. But she should have known better. She was so stupid to talk to Beth like that. She doesn't deserve to read Beth's last words to her. Tears cascade down her cheeks and she quickly shuts the box. _God_, she never deserved Beth. The detective wanted something safe and permanent, Alison couldn't give her that. How she hated that she couldn't give Beth that. She takes a deep breath to steady herself.  
>She locks the box and gently slides it back into the drawer.<p>

* * *

><p>AN: And there it is. My poor baby Ali. I am such a horrible person.

Fav, review, whatever. Until next time *tips hat and disappears*


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